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The 

Discovery of Gold 

in 

California 




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CALIFORNIA STATE PRINTING OFFICE 
SACRAMENTO 
19 19 







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Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 25. 


CHAPTER 69. 


Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 25—Relative to the date 
of the discovery of gold in California by James W. 
Marshall. 

Whereas, The legislature at the forty-second session, by 
Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 15, did authorize the 
governor of the State of California to appoint a committee 
to investigate and to determine the correct date of the dis¬ 
covery of gold in California by James W. Marshall and to 
recommend corrections in the inscription on the monument 
erected at Coloma, El Dorado county, to the memory of 
James W. Marshall and in commemoration of the discovery of 
gold in California; and 

Whereas, Philip Baldwin Bekeart, Fred H. Jung and Grace 
S. Stoermer, constituting the committee appointed by the gov¬ 
ernor for said investigation, have reported to the board of 
trustees of Sutter’s Fort, which board of trustees has charge 
of the maintenance and upkeep of said monument, and has 
recommended that the inscription on the monument setting 
forth that gold was discovered in California “January 19, 
1848” be changed to read “January 24, 1848”; and 
AVhereas, Harry Hanlon, Jo V. Snyder, W. F. Toomey and 
Donald R. Green, constituting the board of trustees of Sutter’s 
Fort, have submitted the report of said committee to the 
members of this legislature for their approval and have sug¬ 
gested that official action be taken to declare January 24, 1848, 
the date upon which gold was discovered in California by 
James W. Marshall; now, therefore, be it 

Resolved by the assembly , the senate concurring, That the 
legislature of the State of California hereby approves the 
report of said committee which report is made a part of this 
resolution and finds, declares and recognizes January 24, 1848, 
as the date upon which gold was discovered in California by 
James W. Marshall; and be it further 

Resolved, That the board of trustees of Sutter’s Fort is 
hereby authorized and directed to change the inscription upon 
the monument erected to the memory of James W. Marshall at 
Coloma, El Dorado county, so that the correct date of the dis¬ 
covery of gold in California by James W. Marshall will appear 
thereon. 


/ 


Los Angeles, California, 
October 15, 1918. 

To the Board of Trustees of Sutter’s Fort, 

Sacramento, California. 

Gentlemen : 

In accordance with the resolution adopted at the legis¬ 
lative session of 1917, the committee appointed by his excel¬ 
lency the governor, William D. Stephens, “to determine the 
exact date of the discovery of gold,” herewith submit their 
findings and make formal request to the board of trustees of 
Sutter’s Fort that they take the necessary action to make such 
change of date effective. 

Respectfully, 

Grace S. Stoermer, Secretary. 

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. 

Los Angeles, California, 
October 15, 1918. 

To His Excellency, William D. Stephens, 

Governor, State Capitol, Sacramento, California. 

Dear Sir: 

The commission appointed to determine the exact date of 
the discovery of gold in California has the honor to herewith 
transmit the report of its investigation. The commission held 
two meetings in San Francisco. There were also conferences 
and correspondence between the members of the commission. 

After much research work on the part of Mr. Phil. B. Bek- 
eart, who devoted considerable time to the subject, the com¬ 
mission submits the following report and determines that the 
correct date is January 24, 1848: 

Philip Baldwin Bekeart. 

Fred H. Jung. 

Grace S'. Stoermer, 

Secretary. 

REPORT OF COMMITTEE. 

Committee appointed by Governor William D. Stephens to 
show 7 proof that the date of the discovery of gold at Coloma, 
Sutter’s Mill, as shown on the Marshall statue at Coloma, 
January 19, 1848, is wrong, and that the correct date is 
January 24, 1848. 

«/ 7 t 

The following report is submitted by Phil. B. Bekeart. 
He makes no claim for any discovery of the correct date, this 
date having been proven by the findings of John S. Hittell, 
the pioneer and historian, in 1885. 

James W. Marshall never kept a diary. He attached no 
historic interest to his discovery at the time it was made. 
The California Chronicle published a letter February 9, 1856, 
signed by Marshall, but written by some other person. His 


next statement, and over his own signature, appeared in 
Hutching’s California Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 5, November, 
1857. This published conversation and interview with Mar¬ 
shall was afterward verified in a letter to John S. Hittell, 
written by J. W. Hutching, December 28, 1885. 

In his statement to Hutching, November, 1857, Marshall 
says: “On or about the nineteenth of January. I am not quite 
certain to a day, but it was between the eighteenth and 
twentieth of that month, 1848.” “The first piece which I 
found weighed about fifty cents. ’ ’ 

Marshall states he left for Sutter’s Fort four days after his 
discovery, to show Captain Sutter his find, and to prove its 
genuineness. 

In view of this statement of Marshall’s, the nineteenth of 
January was the accepted date of the discovery until 1885, 
when John S. Hittell happened to hear that one of Marshall’s 
companions at Sutter’s Mill in 1848 still lived in Utah, so he 
wrote to this man, Henry W. Bigler, St. George, Utah, and 
sent him a copy of an address that he delivered before the 
Society of California Pioneers, in San Francisco, September 9, 
1885. He asked Bigler if this address agreed with his knowl¬ 
edge of Marshall’s discovery, and Bigler replied in a letter 
dated November 29, 1885, that the date was the twenty-fourth, 
not the nineteenth. 

This diary was afterwards obtained from Bigler, and is, I 
believe, now a part of the Bancroft library at Berkeley. A 
facsimile of this diary is in the possession of the Pioneers. It 
reads: 

“Monday 24th. This day some kind of mettle was 
found in the tail race that looks like goald. First 
discovered by James Martial the boss of the mill.” 

General Sutter’s diary, now a valued possession of the 
Society of California Pioneers, records the following few 
words regarding Marshall: 

“Friday, January 28, 1848. Mr. Marshall arrived 
from the mountains on very important business.” 

“Saturday, January 29, 1848. Marshall left for the 
mountains. ’ ’ 

Azariah Smith, then a young man of nineteen years, and 
one of the laborers at Sutter’s Mill, also kept a diary. He 
wrote but once a week (Sunday). His diary, the original of 
which is in the vaults of the Pioneers, reads as follows: 

“Sunday, January 30th. Mr. Marshall having arrived, we 
got liberty of him and built a small house down by the Mill, 
and last Sunday we moved into it in order to get rid of the 
Brawling, Partial Mistress, and cook for ourselves. This 
week Mr. Marshall found some pieces of (as we all suppose) 


Gold, and he has gone to the Fort for the purpose of finding 
out. It is found in the raceway in small peaces. Some have 
been found that would weigh five dollars.” 

Note : This last remark was afterwards explained as fol¬ 
lows: Azariah Smith possessed a five-dollar gold piece, and 
the combined weight of all the flakes picked up by the men 
weighed about five dollars. There never was a nugget found 
in the American river at Coloma (Sutter’s Mill).—P. B. B. 

Summary. 

Bigler’s diary states that Marshall found the gold on Mon¬ 
day, January 24, 1848. 

Marshall told Hutchings he left for Sutter’s Fort, four clays 
after the discovery. 

Sutter’s diary states that Marshall arrived at the fort on 
the twenty-eighth. 

Smith’s diary of Sunday, the thirtieth, states that Marshall 
discovered gold during the week, and had returned from the 
fort. If the discovery had been on the nineteenth, Smith 
would have recorded it on Sunday the twenty-third. 

This proves my contention that the date, January 19, 1848, 
on the Marshall Monument is wrong, and the monument should 
have the date of discovery January 24, 1848. 

(Signed) Philip Baldwin Bekeart, 

Representing Pioneers of California. 

AVe concur in these findings: 

(Signed) Fred II. Jung, 

Representing Native Sons 

of the Golden AVest. 

(Signed) Grace S. Stoermer, 

Representing Native Daughters 

of the Qolden AVest. 


Henry AA t . AVriglit, 

Speaker of the Assembly. 

C. C. Young, 

President of the Senate. 


Attest: 


Frank C. Jordan, 

Secretary of State. 














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